Daily Pilot Soccer Cup: St. Joachim and Eastbluff duke it out

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - If there was a game indicative of the Daily Pilot

Soccer Cup, the fifth- and sixth-grade girls division matchup of St.

Joachim vs. Eastbluff provided much of what the tournament is all about.

Two teams, evenly matched and hustling to the brink of exhaustion,

gave parents and onlookers something to cheer about Thursday at The Farm

Complex.

The St. Joachim Sea Kings answered a 1-0 deficit to score a 2-1

victory as Eastbluff Coach Eric Tobiessen and his girls hardly had

anything to frown about.

Eastbluff scored its goal just before the first half ended. After an

aggressive counterattack, Katherine Ossipoff put the finishing touches

with a strike on the breakaway. The St. Joachim goalie managed to get a

hand on the ball, but there was just too much power in the kick.

Halftime allowed the Sea Kings to regroup and they came out firing in

the second half. Almost identical to Ossipoff’s goal, St. Joachim’s

Mailiah Vivanco used a breakaway to tie the game at one. Vivanco’s ball,

however, sailed into the net untouched.

The two teams battled and it appeared the game would end in a tie,

until Laura Locke caught Eastbluff off guard.

She controlled a loose ball and sent a shot from about 20 yards out as

the ball looped over the goalie’s head and into the net.

“They really came together,” Sea Kings Coach Marcial Gallardo said.

“They came back and won and that’s what I like. Basically, I just want

these girls to get used to each other because they haven’t played with

each other.”

St. Joachim held off Eastbluff with defensive efforts from Marlena

Hamilton, Casey Chocek, Claire Josephson and Cora Busby as Gallardo

continually switched his girls at goalie, as well. Ashleigh Allione,

Katie Puccio, Alyson Gerondale, Brianna Vivanco, Christina Moore, Jackie

Sanchez and Monique Gallardo also contributed in the victory.

Eastbluff stayed in the game because of Emily Hirsch, Nichole Slykhous

and Adriana Triana, gaining solid defense from Courtney Heard, Brooke

Wilburn, Alesandra Tobiessen and Hayley Alder.